Tim Burr

Latest posts by Tim Burr

Unfortunately, the hedge was there when I bought house, and now too much to remove and not lose all privacy. I did read that you should prune laurel by hand to avoid a massacred look, but my life isnt that long - it will have to be hedge trimmer, and I know from looking at it now, it does recover. Last time it was trimmed was in October 2010. In 2011 it hardly grew, except a few odd pretruding bits, but this year it has gone mad.

All the rain, and then the warm weather, and my laurel hedge has gone mad bushing out in all directions - never seen it so exuberant! Too early to trim back with a hedge trimmer? Dont really want to have to do it again before winter (large hedge).

All mine have collapsed from all the rain - they put on a growth spurt when the weather warmed up, but now in full flower they are prostate. Looking a bit sorry for themselves. Too late now, but next year I'll get some support. Anybody got any recommedations for type of supports to use (with pictures!!).

You can complain to the council if a high hedge is impacting on your enjoyment of your property, however, before proceeding down this route, you must have first tried to resolve it amicably with your neighbour, and taking it to the council should be a last resort.

There are places on the internet that says the max height of a hedge should be no more than 2m, but there is no max height, and the council will consider the location of the hedge before determining how much a high hedge should be reduced by - they may consider it reasonable that a hedge can still be over 2m.

Other factors are that the hedge has to be semi or permanent evergreen! There must be at least two shrubs or trees in a row, be at least 2m in height, it must form a barrier, to light or access, and it must adversily affect your enjoyment of your property by virtue of its height - however, If there is a problem caused by hedge roots, the council will not get involved.

If the council is satisfied you have done all you can to reslove amicably, and they agree that a hedge is preventing enjoyment of your property, they will issue a remedial notice to the hedge owner to require them to reduce the hedge height. Once the hedge is reduced, it must continue to be maintained at that height.

When I was a lad, still living at home, and just into gardening, I once managed to keep my tomatoes watered whilst on holiday for two weeks by using an old beer making barrel, and three pair of my mums tights. The tights had one leg in the water with other end wrapped around tomato plant. All my friendly neighbour had to do was come in and top up the barrel with water and tomato feed. Best tomatoes we had. My mum complained about her missing tights for weeks.

I've got tadpoles in my pond, donated to me by a friend. They are doing great and I can see them swimming and feeding actively in the water. However, my pond is fairly close to my lawn, and now I am worried about what will happen when the tadpoles emerge as frogs, and end up sitting in my lawn which will become a prolem when I come to mow. I set my lawn mower blades to the highest setting al year, which keeps it drought tolerant even in the hottest of summers, but it also means on the most warm of days, my grass is always very slighly damp under foot (lovely to walk on on a hot day), which I guess will be a perfect resting place for a frog. How do I avoid hurting any frogs resting in the law when they emerge?

Thanks - can I assume that with it now repotted and retaining the water for the roots, will the degeneration of the leaves cease, or once it has started down this route, it will continue, until the whole leaf is brown (and dead).

I was amazed by how big Mr Gavin's "garden" was - the pics on the TV didn't do it justice. It was enormous. And it also highlighted what can be done with a bit of imagination, some compost and some plants, in pots and containers, 100 foot off the ground. I often think how little imagination some of us Brits have when it comes to high rise living, wheras on the continent, if you walk or drive past a high rise block of flats or apartments, practically every balcony has a pot of something growing in it, even if its just a geranium. If only some of all these new modern city developments that have become so predominant in all our city's and towns took inspiration from Mr Gavin's garden, the world would be a much greener and pleasant place. Perhaps the developers of city apartment blocks should be made to install window boxes and provide at least on plant, a a bag of compost to all new residents to get them going.

I have a large Yucca in my conservatory which has developed brown tips, I think probably cause it has suffered from underwatering becuase its grown too big for its pot and the water just runs staright thru'. I am now repotting it, but want to give it a bit of a make over by removing the brown tips on the leaves. Is it enough to simpy snip off the ends of the leaves (to make a new pointed tip), and will the leaves be OK (ie, not die back further).